Today's Topics:
1. France, Union Communiste Libertaire AL #306 - Culture, Read:
Huhn and Mattick, "Stalin, Trotsky: Lenin's Legacy" (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
2. cnt-ait: THE IRANIAN WORKING CLASS NEED OUR SOLIDARITY AND
SUPPORT (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
3. France, Union Communiste Libertaire UCL - Solidarity with
Alice Coffin in the face of the heteropatriarchate (fr, it,
pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
4. Canada, Collectif Emma Goldman - Interview with an anarchist
comrade from Gatineau on the situation of homelessness and
housing (fr, it, pt)[machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
5. wessex solidarity: Kurdistan Solidarity Cymru: Women's power
for social revolution -- Statement from women organised with
Kurdistan Solidarity Cymru (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
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Message: 1
At the crossroads of political theory and the history of the Russian Revolution, Stalin, Trotsky: Lenin's Legacy , published by Spartacus
editions, offers a vitriolic critique of the role of the Bolsheviks in this revolution. ---- Bringing together texts by Willy Huhn and Paul
Mattick, this work attacks the idea according to which there would be a major rupture between Lenin and Stalin, and that Trotsky would have
been the real defender of the ideas of Lenin, misled by the bloodthirsty Stalin. ---- In fact, according to Huhn, the authoritarian worm was
in the fruit of the Bolshevik Party from the start. If Trotsky had been able to succeed in taking over from Lenin, he would only have
followed the general line of this party, which sees itself as the vanguard of the proletariat. The party would therefore have a vocation to
lead society and to subject the proletariat to a dictatorship exercised in its name. At no time does Trotsky deviate from this line.
In 1921, when it came to crushing the sailors from Kronstadt who were protesting against the confiscation of power by the Communist Party,
his hand did not tremble. Above all, in the early 1920s, at the end of the Russian Civil War, Trotsky proposed an extreme measure: the
militarization of work.
According to this delusional plan, the whole of the Russian working class should be recruited into the army and subjected to barracks
discipline to revive production, with Trotsky as supreme eminence, then commander-in-chief of the armies ... Lenin's plan which is adopted,
liberalizing the economy and allowing small private companies to revive.
Trotsky, another Stalin ?
It is also for these reasons that Trotsky, once ejected from power by Stalin, takes care not to carry his criticism of the USSR too far: he
describes it as a workers' state badly managed by a bad bureaucracy.
In reality the USSR was not a workers' state: it was state capitalism with a new all-powerful ruling class, the party bureaucracy. If
Trotsky, and his following, his Trotskyist followers never knew how to make this fundamental criticism, it is because in reality they did
not intend to give back power to Russian workers.
Their objective was quite simply to take a new direction for the state capitalism applied by Russia. If this debate has lost some of its
relevance since the collapse of the USSR, this book is nonetheless interesting: it allows us to understand how far "real socialism" was
concretely removed from communist society. he was promising.
Matt (UCL Montpellier)
Willy Huhn, Paul Mattick, Stalin, Trotsky: the legacy of Lenin , Paris, Spartacus, 2019, 182 pages, 13 euros.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Lire-Huhn-et-Mattick-Staline-Trotsky-l-heritage-de-Lenine
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Message: 2
A new round of protest strikes in the Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers in Ahwaz in the southwest of Iran began on Monday, June 15, 2020 and to
this day July 28, 2020 has continued and entered to its 44th day. The "Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Workers Syndicate" fully supports the just
demands of the workers ---- syndica.hafttape@gmail.com / @Sandika7tapeh ---- The "Haft Tappeh Sugarcane Agro-industrial Complex in Ahwaz" is
located in Khuzestan Province near the Persian Gulf of southwestern Iran, which started its operations for the first time in 1966. In this
big industrial complex in Middle East with more than 7,000 employees, besides the main production of sugar, there are other by-products such
as paper mills and fodder for livestock and poultry
Today, after forty-four days, Gholam Hossein Ismaili, the spokesman for the "Judicial system" of the Capitalist Shia Islamic Caliphate in
Iran, has warned the struggling striking workers that: "YOU SHOULD RETURN TO WORK AND DO NOT STOP THE PRODUCTION"!! But the Workers demand,
among other things are: immediate payment of unpaid wages for more than three months, the extension of contract about the social and
medication insurance and the return to work for the dismissed colleagues, including Ismail Bakhshi. Abolition of private ownership of Haft
Tappeh Sugarcane Company, return of the stolen capital assets by the labor buyer to the workers and punishment of Omid Assad Beigi, the
company's CEO and his business partner Mehrdad Rostami
Among other things, the fascist ruling power in the country has tried to implement its neoliberal economic policy, despite the workers'
resistance, in 2015 the company was handed over to Omid Assad Beigi and Mehrdad Rostami, two private venture capitalists. The sugar cane
workers at this plant have repeatedly demonstrated and gone on strike more than a hundred times over the last five years. So far, a large
number of protesting Haft Tappeh workers have been arrested with severe torture and sentenced by the "Revolutionary Court" to imprisonment
and whipping. The just struggles of the Iranian Working Class and the strike of the Haft Tappeh Workers need our solidarity and support
DOWN WITH THE CAPITALIST SHIA ISLAMIC CALIPHATE REGIME IN IRAN
LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY AGAINST OPPRESSION AND EXPLOITATION AROUND THE WORLD
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Message: 3
On July 23, feminists demonstrated to demand the resignation of Christophe Girard, deputy for culture at the City of Paris, because of his
support for Gabriel Matzneff. Matzneff is a pedophile, notably accused by Vanessa Springora in her book "Consent". Matzneff had published a
book, "The apple of my eye" devoted to these vile acts, and this book is dedicated to Girard. The latter also helped Matzneff financed the
hotel room in which he received his victim. Faced with the mobilization, Girard ended up resigning. ---- Alice Coffin, elected green to the
Paris council applauded the demonstration and the resignation. She also shouted " Shame, shame "When a standing ovation was made to Girard
at the Council of Paris, at the request of the prefect Lallement, followed by Anne Hidalgo and a large majority of the city council. Hidalgo
supported and continues to support Girard despite the fact that she herself provided the prosecution with the expense reports for the meals
with Matzneff that the deputy mayor made taxpayers pay. She also said she wanted to file a complaint against the slogans of the
demonstration. Alice Coffin has several characteristics that annoy her: she's a woman, she's a feminist and she's a lesbian, and she doesn't
hide it. She has the courage to say loud and clear that a family with a heterosexual couple of parents is a dangerous place for women and
for children.
She is now the victim of harassment and threats to the point of having been placed under police protection.
We obviously do not agree with the EELV program, and it is not the elected official that we support, but the lesbian woman who is the victim
of misogynistic and lesbophobic harassment because she spoke out against the heteropatriarchate , which stood out here for its unconditional
support for child crime.
We affirm loud and clear our solidarity with Alice Coffin.
Antipatriarchate Commission, July 28, 2020.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Solidarite-avec-Alice-Coffin-face-a-l-heteropatriarcat
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Message: 4
Faced with the problem of a lack of affordable housing and the increase in homelessness, the city of Gatineau can find nothing better to do
than evict several times a month the makeshift camps for people experiencing homelessness. We contacted Boris, an anarchist comrade on the
ground in Gatineau to allow him to share this absurd situation, as well as the ongoing struggles. ---- BCEG: Hey hi! On July 3, the League
of Rights and Freedoms announced the launch of an "emergency observation mission" in Gatineau in connection with the housing situation in
the city and the dismantling of homeless camps. Can you tell us about the housing and homelessness situation in Gatineau? Are forms of
gentrification observed in the more popular districts of the city?
Boris: To answer frankly, if I want to give you a complete answer, it will be long. We have been observing densification in downtown
Gatineau for years. We must agree, when the merger of the cities happened about 18 years ago, it showed that the urban sprawl over 57 km
from one end to the other gives the municipality a challenge. Especially considering that the main economic pole of the region are public
service jobs in Ottawa and downtown Gatineau. Densification is therefore not necessarily harmful in the environmental sense. That said, we
can understand that it generates a phenomenon of gentrification. The plans for the "revitalization" of the city go through the
"beautification" of neighborhoods, the city also grants large grants for the improvement of the facade of houses, the construction of condo
towers in working-class neighborhoods where the vacancy rate is higher than the number of affordable housing... All of this has impacts on
neighborhoods: increase in rent prices, gradual change in the population, etc. The gentrification process is faster than the construction of
affordable housing and the eviction of crooked landlords who, among other things, do not take care of their rental housing. The last few
years have also been hard in the Outaouais with repeated floods, tornadoes and the ongoing housing crisis ... Several owners have taken the
opportunity to rebuild more luxurious, smaller and more expensive, which has resulted in many families homeless. We have heard of rent
increases of up to 25% of the price of former occupants, which is completely absurd. When it comes to roaming, the past year has been rough.
The only shelter in the region for homeless people was the victim of a fire on December 31. The people had to be relocated to a poorly
adapted community center for a few months, moved again further from the city center to another not so more adapted community center and in a
neighborhood whose social acceptability was rather mixed. The pandemic has arrived, the lodge has been able to return to its premises, but
with fewer rooms (maximum 40 instead of 60), the city has unlocked the arena of the city's major junior hockey team until the end. of August
for a number of around 60 people. At the end of August, they will be relocated again to allow the Hull Olympiques team to regain their ice
(although there would have been at least one alternative), this faith of the other next to the river in another popular district of Gatineau
where many citizens fear the arrival of their future neighbors. What must be understood is that the people who adopt the camp all have their
reasons and have their constraints to live in emergency accommodation: some people feel safer with their tent, some people feel better
protected against covid, others have limited access to accommodation for any offense, others feel bad about continuously living in a group,
there are bickering, mental health issues, consumer issues, issues related to pets, some will simply prefer to regain their privacy and
autonomy at least for the summer period, etc. At its peak, we had about 20-30 campers in the makeshift makeshift camp, and more if you count
those who had already dispersed. The pandemic has also enabled us to count no less than 150 people and families in the street, and this is
only the "visible" part of homelessness, because there are also all the others who do not seek resources. in organisms. they who had already
dispersed. The pandemic has also enabled us to count no less than 150 people and families in the street, and this is only the "visible" part
of homelessness, because there are also all the others who do not seek resources. in organisms. they who had already dispersed. The pandemic
has also enabled us to count no less than 150 people and families in the street, and this is only the "visible" part of homelessness,
because there are also all the others who do not seek resources. in organisms.
BCEG: In this situation, and with the lack of solutions, we learn that camps for people experiencing homelessness have developed. Can you
tell us about these occupied places and their repeated dismantling by the police?
Boris: The place is almost perfect. A few meters and a few blocks from primary roaming services. Soup kitchen, psychosocial support,
support, interveners, of the new overdose prevention site, distribution of sterile consumption material, accessible to street workers... not
to mention that it is located in a wooded area bordered by a stream. Obviously, there are challenges. Who says improvised camp also says
less code of life, therefore more prompt to drifts. The chronic underfunding of organizations also creates challenges to adequate support in
a context of dismantling AND pandemic: The dispersion of people generates a loss of contact, at least temporarily, with the interveners and
a distance from primary resources in roaming. The isolation it creates undermines the safety, health and lives of consumers in times of
fentanyl and other poorly cut drugs (cases of death and overdose are on the rise lately in the region) and , also, because they are far
away, they have less access to sterile consumption equipment and to a safe way to dispose of it after use. All this without counting the
trauma, the insecurity, the stigmatization of their socioeconomic situation, the fear, the violation of rights and so on. But community
workers are passionate and are 300% invested. They ... they do hard, quality work. This is unfortunately not without underlining that this
also involves certain risks in the long term as regards the stability of workers and services. Nevertheless, I think I can say that around
the camp, things are going pretty well. In the past, there was an experience that marked the memory of citizens, organizations and "elected
officials" with a hot iron. 2015: a concerted agreement with the city allowed the camps to be tolerated. Unfortunately, due to the lack of
financial, human and organizational resources of community organizations, things went wrong and since then, the city's leitmotif has been
dismantling every 2 weeks or so. Although some police officers are more slobbery than others, some cops find that it doesn't make sense and
are sickened by it. The order comes from the city with upstream from the CISSSO. Well, I'll just stop at that, because despite everything,
several patrollers continue to do profiling, intimidation, harassment, brutality, etc.
BCEG: From a systemic vision, how do you perceive the action of the city and the authorities in the face of the housing problem?
Boris: If we consider that homelessness is a reality which is based, among other things, on accessibility to affordable housing, a
conjuncture of unfavorable socio-economic and personal factors, the equation to bring these people back to a decent standard of living must
necessarily involve a constructive approach from all stakeholders and have a coherent plan in the process. The city seems to be working in
isolation projects. It did well on minutes and in local media headlines, but in reality everything seems to be managed without a concrete
global vision. The city is participating in the problem by always showing itself to be favorable to the projects of large real estate
developers by offering them favorable tax measures and by always showing itself open to making exemptions from the planning rules,
In casting a wider net there is also the individualization and stigmatization of people's socio-economic reality. We can see it at all
levels in the excessively strict eligibility criteria for the various aid programs. But in a system, when the requests for help are so
numerous that the government chooses to tighten the admission conditions, it is no longer an organizational problem (it never has been for
that matter), it is is that there is an ideological problem. We must stop dressing wounds without trying to understand the reasons for the
bleeding. The whole system needs to be reviewed because, fundamentally, the causes of poverty and homelessness are primarily systemic in
nature that flow directly from the capitalist system. Waiting,
There is also a program that is supposed to compensate for the lack of affordable housing by partially financing the price of private rental
housing, cooperatives and / or low-income housing for people with low income: The PSL (rental supplement program )... But what a great
surprise: among the conditions for granting the supplement, there is the criterion of the price of the rent... which are always too
expensive due to the housing crisis which is exacerbated by many factors, the pandemic, etc. which makes the program almost obsolete in
Gatineau. Listen, from what I understand, the Société d'Habitation du Québec assigns a certain number of PSL to the Offices d'Habitations
and the latter refuse to say how many they have and try as much as possible to keep them to themselves. because the more they give, the more
they demonstrate the failure of their mission.
Otherwise, they have just announced the construction of a new hlm of 135 housing units which should be under construction soon. It should
help reduce the number of people on the waiting list, but the list remains long. Just to give you an idea, from the last flood in 2017 I
believe, there were still people in hotels as an emergency measure at the beginning of 2020 ...
There is also a transitional housing project coming up, that is to say housing that will accommodate people who will be accompanied by
interveners the time to stabilize and acquire the necessary personal resources. to be well and independent... The project has been on the
table for years, so we are delighted... but it is still only at the planning stage. Construction has not yet started. We will undoubtedly
have another optimistic minimum of 2 years before it succeeds. And this project will only be for a fraction of the people who are ready to
begin steps in this direction. Implicitly, local authorities must accept in their principles of combating homelessness that there will
undoubtedly always be people who will be in the streets, by choice or not.
BCEG: What were the mobilizations of the community movement, the community and popular groups in solidarity with people experiencing
homelessness and against dismantling?
Boris: For years street workers, workers, housing and homelessness organizations have been on the front lines. Some are exhausted, others
are suffering from compassion fatigue, some have passed the torch to the next generation and many are still there, but the fervor of the
community in Gatineau is well established. The militant fiber is particularly strong this year. Barriers seem to be slowly falling,
collaboration becomes easier between partners, which leads to more effective, more numerous and more radical concerted actions. From the
start this year, through our actions and favorable media coverage and the support of citizens' committees, public opinion tends to offer us
its support. Although ephemeral, it is not negligible in the fight. Since the first dismantling, organizations for the defense and services
of people experiencing homelessness have been on the ground to ensure that things go smoothly. We managed to postpone the second dismantling
with an action that we called the "Hedge of dishonor". In the early morning, we planted signs at strategic places in the city. We arrived a
little before the scheduled dismantling time with a good 50 or so double-sided signs that we displayed at the entrance to the camp, erected
barricades with the carcasses of bicycles and started discussions with the police chief on places. The SPVG was ordered to leave, informed
us that an emergency telephone meeting was going to take place with certain organizations and required the presence of the president. e of
their respective CA so as to silence us. It didn't work haha. On the day of this action, people living in the camp got involved in taking
part in the actions, speaking out publicly, giving interviews to the media and raising the awareness of their camping partners. We are at 6
dismantles this summer. We issued press releases, 2 demonstrations, the last of which was a symbolic camp at the intersection of 2 main
arteries and an occupation of the office of the Régie du logement.... We haven't finished. We have not finished because we are rebelling
against the discourse of the city which prioritizes the rights of citizens... and those of homeless people. They are angry that the city
refuses to review their strategic plans. We are protesting that human rights in homelessness are repeatedly violated and against the
violence that this imposes on them. We are angry that the city is trying to blackmail us. We are angry to see the city develop without ever
giving crumbs to the most vulnerable. We rebel because they create a climate of terror for campers while the world is dying of overdoses and
the housing crisis in the streets of Gatineau.... We rebel simply because no one deserves any treatment. 'such cruelty.
BCEG: In your opinion, what would be the viable solutions to tackle the housing issues in Gatineau in the short and medium term?
Boris: Viable solutions are difficult to determine without consultation with the people who live in the camp and the various stakeholders
around and we are not there yet. On the other hand, as long as the city and the CISSSO remain camped in their positions, the situation will
not change. We will have to work everyone together to find solutions. Some say that the camps are not sustainable solutions, but I do not
share their opinion. Certainly, we need transitional housing and affordable housing, we also need strict measures from the city with regard
to private investors in real estate, a total absence of social profiling, intimidation and police abuse, increased monitoring of
irresponsible landlords, but above all, grieve with the idea of a project to "fight homelessness". I hate the word. It is as if we wanted to
deny the existence of the various personal and systemic factors that lead to homelessness. In short, "housing" at all costs is not
realistic. Roaming and camps will always exist, as well as optimizing the conditions of well-being, whatever they are, wherever they are.
Homelessness has as many forms as there are people who experience it, so there are as many approaches as there are means to achieve it and
that implies, a priori, accepting the person where they are in their own right. life and accompany her towards the best she can achieve for
herself without any set goals and time. Otherwise, I call it forced reintegration, it's immoral and inhuman. But to come back to your
question, I want to add that real estate investors are too caught with a grain of salt. In the framework of reference for the fight against
homelessness that the city of Gatineau adopted this summer, there is too much simplicity of mind. For example: the city is based on the good
faith of investors to build affordable housing... It's nonsense: The rich must be taxed, not ask them for charity. For example, the city
should require a percentage of investment for all new construction that would be invested in the construction of affordable housing. Basta.
For example: the city is based on the good faith of investors to build affordable housing... It's nonsense: The rich must be taxed, not ask
them for charity. For example, the city should require a percentage of investment for all new construction that would be invested in the
construction of affordable housing. Basta. For example: the city is based on the good faith of investors to build affordable housing... It's
nonsense: The rich must be taxed, not ask them for charity. For example, the city should require a percentage of investment for all new
construction that would be invested in the construction of affordable housing. Basta.
Otherwise, supervised camps, hotels, keep the arena until the construction of affordable housing in sufficient numbers, transitional
housing. I think that pretty much encompasses my idea.
In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to denounce that we are in unceded Algonquin territory and that through several
revitalization and construction projects, the city has violated ancestral lands rich in artefacts and history on several occasions despite
the fact that 'they encountered resistance in the street. I am thinking, among others, of Jacque Cartier Street and the "ZIBI" condo tower
project which, quite 2, run along the Gatineau and Outaouais rivers.
Thank you for allowing time and space for our local struggles. Solidarity!
BCEG: A big thank you for answering our questions! What is happening in Gatineau has something to think about in Saguenay, too, with the
gentrification of working-class neighborhoods and the hunt for the poor by the municipal police. We will carefully follow the popular
responses developed in Gatineau. Solidarity!
by Collectif Emma Goldman
http://ucl-saguenay.blogspot.com/2020/07/entretien-avec-un-camarade-anarchiste.html
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Message: 5
On the occasion of the 8th anniversary of the revolution in Rojava being celebrated on the weekend of 19-19th July 2020. ---- Women's
uprising against power structures has been crucial for revolutions of past and present. Only the revolutions that are spearheaded by the
need for the emancipation of women and their participation and leadership in the life of the community are destined for both social triumph
and the most bloody confrontation, since no state or power structure would bear to be overthrown by women. ---- The Kurdish revolution and
specifically the Rojava experience is one of the most important revolutions of the 21st century, where women are leading the revolution from
the front for the community. We celebrate and pay tribute to 8 years of resistance against fascism and patriarchy with a fight that is an
example for the world, for feminist struggles and for any revolutionary struggle, since not all revolutionary movements are committed to
women's leadership.
Spanish, Rojava and Zapatista revolutionaries
However, we must not overlook the trajectory and example of other revolutions that women have and have had at the forefront. The Spanish
social revolution of the 1930s counted on the outstanding association of Mujeres Libres, a group of brilliant women and advanced even for
the anarchist movement in which they had to confront the patriarchy of their time defending reproductive rights, sexual education, and the
protection of sex workers.
Later, in the 1980s, Nicaraguan feminists faced Samos fascism during the Sandinista popular revolution. They had to face the Sandinista
revolution itself where many believed that they were dividing the revolution and being disloyal to the movement, but the women's struggle
was crucial to democratize the revolution itself: to carry out self-defense, go out into the public space, talk about violence towards women
and reproductive rights was a dogged struggle from the start.
A last mention to the women of the Zapatista revolution who have been key to the transformation of the Zapatista movement and the defense of
the rights of indigenous women through the revolutionary laws of women. They defended in battalions the liberation of the lands dominated
by what they call - with deliberate simplicity - "the bad government" of the territory of Chiapas in Mexico.
Much can be learned from these revolutionary movements and from the need to have women at the forefront of the struggle. From urban and
western feminism, it is essential that we defend international solidarity between peoples, learning from the defense of the collective
enjoyment of rights, with a concept of community that leads us to authentic social transformation, while also respecting the
self-determination of peoples and their right to define themselves from different cultures, traditions and forms of expression.
Their fight is our inspiration, our inspiration is their hope.
No pasarán.
https://wessexsolidarity.wordpress.com/2020/07/26/kurdistan-solidarity-cymru-womens-power-for-social-revolution/
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